This morning as I was driving to the newsroom, I noticed several police cars lining the road.

As I looked around, I saw they had taped the entrances to the local park and stood guard ensuring no one passed.

The cars around me were slowing down to a turtle-pace to get a good look at the scene.
I was getting pretty aggrevated.

I was already a little late to work and had quite a few things that needed doing. I looked relatively calm on the exterior, but in my head I was absolutely shouting, “come on people!!!! It’s probably just a body.”

Then I thought, ‘whoa, wait a minute here - JUST a body??”. To which my mind immediately responded with, ‘damn, I wish I had my camera with me.”

Who am I???

This is not a normal thought pattern - is it?

Jaded journalists are pretty mainstream these days. I was chatting with a colleague not too long ago about the brutal bus rage incident in the prairies. A man savagedly attacked a stranger on a bus; stabbing him to death, decapitating him with a hunting knife, eating parts of the body and taunting fellow passengers with his severed head.

I was totally shocked by the story - obviously! I couldn’t believe some of the gruesome things I was reading on the front pages of every daily newspaper in the city.

My co-workers response: “Ah, these things happen all the time.”

What?? Her response was pretty humourous to me at the time. But, if she thinks this sort of thing is fairly normal then I’m pretty sure that’s the last conversation I’ll be having with this lady.

That’s one work relationship I don’t want to see advance past daily ‘hi’s’ and ‘goodbyes’ with the odd watercooler business chuckle.

I’m sure that sort of thinking is common in this industry unfortunately. Once you’ve been around the block a couple times then certain things fail to shock you. (Although it’s fair to say it depends what block you live on. I’m sure the arts and lifestyle reporters had nightmares for days after reading that story).

For now I’m going to stick to my lovely jubbely stories. I can feel myself becoming a soul-less shadow… a merciless member of the press. And that’s one professional attribute I don’t care to conquer.

merry christmas to all and to all a good night
L x

Tags: General Lori-ness by lori
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Naughty me for neglecting this blog over the past couple of weeks.

I was on an island, sleeping in a tent, bathing in a lake. No joke!

Of course that was immediately followed by a couple nights spent in the swankiest of swank hotels in Toronto. I arrived in style: smelling of fish bait, covered in mosquito bites.

Wouldn’t have had it any other way though. I’m sure the staff of the hotel agreed.

I knew I was in Swankville when I overheard the conversation of a couple sitting next to me on the sheltered sofa of an overpriced restaurant inside the hotel. The manicured man clutching one of the two rat-like dogs he decided to bring along for the meal.

“His name is Armani,” he told the waitress stroking the yappy rat who was better groomed than me. “And this is my girlfriend Lisa Marie,” he added pointing to… well, he could have been refering to the girl next to him or the other dog perched on the sofa. Who knows!?

I’ll probably never stay in a hotel like that again. At least, not until I become a member of some European royal family - which lets face it - is going to happen.

So I basked in the delightfulness of it all, ensuring I swam in my room’s bathtub while reading “Luxery Travel” magazine and making bubblebath necklaces out of the designer soap included in the room. It smelt like money, and so did I. At least for a while.

I smell more like newsprint now.

Now it’s back to work. I’m writing this from my desk now.

Thinking back to my holiday now, it’s not the posh hotel I sit back and miss.

Instead, I’m smiling about the size of the anorexic tent I called home for three days in the wilderness.

I want to go back!

Tags: General Lori-ness by lori
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